Starting a Car Club - Any Advice?

[Guest Munky]

G'day people,

Me and a few of my mates are wanting to start a car club. Before I ask for advice, let me just clarify that this car club isn't intending to compete with Skyline Australia. We just want to limit the area of coverage of the club, and broaden the type of cars to any performance cars.

So far we have a pretty impressive selection of cars such as a 300zx, 180sx, R33, R34, XR6 and a VL Commodore. We also have a few other exotic cars such as an MR2 lined up.

Anyway, that's beside the point :wassup:. I was just wondering if anyone hear could give me some advice as to how you are meant to set up such a club. So far I have a .org.au webdomain lined up and hence we've sussed out getting an ABN number (even though this venture will most likely be totally non-profit).

Firstly, a question - is it best to list such a club under a 'partnership' or 'organisation' with regards to acquiring an ABN. Before people who don't know anything about ABN's post the obvious response, please consider that both terms have legalities associated to them which don't necessarily follow the actual meaning of the word (for eg. for an organisation u need 50 shareholders or something along those lines)

Now, I was just wondering, me and my mates are uni students and are therefore lving on pretty thin budgets. Any ideas as to how we could raise the funds to acquire a proper webhost? I was originally planning on getting my own personal webspace and using that to host the club, but its turning out to be more expensive than I desired ($120 pa). Of course sponsorship is an option, but who would be willing to support a car club with no history, set up by uni students. I don't think I'd get much of a response :|.

Anyway, any advice or tips would be heaps appreciated. Like I said, we're not trying to compete with SAU, but rather are trying to cater to the specific needs of a certain area in Sydney (ie. the North Shore), as well as a wider spectrum of car types.

Cheers people

[knore]

As much as i love skylines and imports in general. I think its necessary for a car club that anyone can be apart of.

Obviously there is some requirements though..

[Guest Munky]

Yeh, obviously we don't want riced up Lancers with fluro mudguards asking for membership. To get into the club, your car would have to be a genuine performace/import car.

[Guest Munky]

Jeez don't rush to reply guys

[gatty]

guess no one has started one

but i assume it would be a huge task - why make it official so fast?

why not do like SAU Qld - we started out just on SAU like everyone - then when the interest is there for memberships etc etc from main SAU forums we are branching off to form QLD branch etc

Why not start a website, have a few track days etc etc and see how things go form there as to forming the club officially or not

[Guest Munky]

Yeh thats true. You see, the main costs are setting up a website. That's what we're struggling to fund...

[Tosh]

We also have a few other exotic cars such as an MR2 lined up.

I LIKE THIS MAN ALREADY!!!

:D

hehe

[gatty]

struggling to fund?

buy a domain from

http://www.namecheap.com (8.88 USD)

if you need webhosting PM me, i'll make you a account free with ftp access/cpanel etc etc on a dedicated server i rent in the US

then do what you like, install VBulletin like here or a free one like phpBB

[Kel]

I LIKE THIS MAN ALREADY!!!

:D

hehe

(how much did you have to pay him Tosh?)

[Tosh]

(how much did you have to pay him Tosh?)

(enough )

[Guest Munky]

Hey,

Cheers for the advice guys. Any further advice is appreciated! And thanks heaps gatty, I've PM'ed you!

[Blitz]

Struggling to fund a website?

I find it hard to believe that a group of people driving hellishly expensive cars cannot find $66 or so to register a domain and either use their own free allocated ISP webspace or pay a tiny amount per month to have your own webspace.

[gatty]

blitz

.com = 15 AUD yearly

hosting = free with me for all nissan related sites

[Blitz]

Gatty, i was actually referring to a 2 year registration and yes I am well aware they are available via cheaper means if you look hard enough.

Thankyou for confirming my point

[gatty]

confirming your point...lol

just because the fella is 18 and drives a r34 don't mean he's rolling in it

a car like that is probably the reason why he can't afford it

lol

anyway i'm going to host some sites on my server so if anyone wants some hosting just PM me

[Guest Munky]

The same shit always happens. Everytime I post here I seem to end up being questioned about how I could afford my car. Oh well, that's no one's business!

Cheers for the webspace gatty! Very much appreciated!!

[chaos]

what are you after exactly though?? an official club with stickers and things like that or just a group of mates wanting to be associated or known as a club...chances of sponsership are slim like you said no history...i did start a small club but fell through cause i had too much on at the time and no interest really..i just ran a small msn domain for a while..still have it actually. I had a sponser lined up and he still gives me deals etc for mates if i refer them to him...sauqld has been trying to get on its feet for 2 years so im told so you cant expect to get a club on its feet and official in a short time...will take a few months of so if your dedicated to it. My mate who was helping me did apply for a abn but it was 2-3 months before i got a call from them confirming it etc. If you want to get your name out just get some stickers printed etc with your club name and then go from there

[Guest Munky]

Here is the preliminary design:

http://www.nsperformanceclub.com/

http://www.nsperformanceclub.com/featured.htm

Tell me what you think! (The banner is incorrectly named due to the original name of the club changing)

[PHaT MR30]

look at:

www.platinumcarclub.com

local club that started up

u can use cjb.net web redirection services like these clubs

www.tassiecruiseclub.cjb.net

[Guest Munky]

Cheers.

May I just point out though, that the R34 Pixel picture wasn't made by me. It was a modified one from one posted on the forum.